Food Label Compliance: Your Complete Guide

Food Label Compliance: Your Complete Guide

Overview

In this guide, we will explain everything you need to know to get your food labels right, before you launch in the UK and EU

Why label compliance matters

Food labels sold in the UK and EU need to meet the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Getting it wrong can mean your products get held at the border, pulled from sale, or blocked from a marketplace altogether — none of which is a fun way to spend a Tuesday.
The good news? Compliance is very achievable with a bit of structure. Most brands we work with already meet 10 or 11 of the 12 core requirements — it's usually just one or two details that need tidying up. This guide walks you through exactly what to check.

The 12 essentials every label needs

Every prepacked food product needs to include these 12 items. Go through them one by one before you send anything to print.

1. Product name
  1. Use the common or legal name for what it actually is (e.g. "Instant Coffee") — not just your brand name.
2. Ingredients list
  1. List every ingredient by weight, from most to least.
  2. Use real ingredient names rather than trade names or "proprietary blends",
  3. Make sure any allergens are clearly identifiable within the list.
3. Allergen information
  1. Highlight all 14 major allergens where present: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, tree nuts, milk, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin, molluscs, and soya. These need to stand out — bold text or a contrasting colour works well.
4. Quantity (where relevant)
  1. If an ingredient features in your product name or on the pack imagery, you'll need to state what percentage of the product it makes up (e.g. "40% Strawberries").
5. Net weight or volume
  1. How much is actually in the pack.
  2. Always use metric units: grams (g) or kilograms (kg) for weight, millilitres (ml) or litres (l) for volume.
6. Date and storage information
  1. Include a "best before" or "use by" date in DD/MM/YYYY format, plus any temperature requirements (e.g. "Store at 2–8°C").
7. Instructions for use
  1. If your product needs preparing or cooking, include the steps, along with cooking time and temperature in °C.
8. Business address
  1. Your company's name and full address — or the address of your importer in the target market, or your registered Food Business Operator (FBO) address for the UK or EU.
9. Country of origin
  1. Where the product comes from, if leaving this out could mislead the customer.
  2. Use the format "Product of [Country]".
10. Usage instructions
  1. If your product needs special handling to be used safely or correctly, spell it out clearly.
11. Alcohol strength
  1. For drinks above 1.2% alcohol by volume, state the percentage (e.g. "12.5% vol").
12. Nutrition facts
  1. Energy (calories), fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar, protein and salt, per 100g.
  2. This is required for most products — see the section below for exceptions.

Getting the font size right

All mandatory label information needs to be genuinely readable:
  1. Standard minimum: 1.2 mm x-height (that's the height of a lowercase "x")
  2. Small packages (under 80 cm²): 0.9 mm is acceptable
  3. Keep text a dark colour against a light background so it doesn't get lost behind logos or images

Do you need a nutrition panel?

Most products do. There are a couple of exceptions:
Exempt: pure coffee and tea with no added ingredients
Not exempt: flavoured coffee, or any product with added sugar, milk powder, or other extra ingredients — these all need a full nutrition declaration
Your nutrition label should show energy (in both kJ and kcal), fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, and salt — all per 100g/100ml and per serving.

You can get accurate figures either by:
  1. Having your product tested by a lab (typically €200–500), or
  2. Using standard database values, if your recipe is fixed and won't change

Some products need extra care

A handful of product types carry additional requirements on top of the 12 essentials above. If any of these apply to you, it's worth getting a specialist regulatory review before you go to market:
We support all of these categories — just flag it to us early so we can guide you through the extra steps.

Making claims on your label? Read this first

Thinking about adding something like "High in Protein", "Source of Fibre", "Low Sugar", "Contains Antioxidants" or "Good for Digestion"?

Any claim like this has to tick two boxes:
  1. It's on the permitted EU list of allowed claims, and
  2. It's backed by scientific evidence
Making an unsupported claim can lead to non-compliance findings, product seizure, and fines. If you're not sure, the safest option is to leave the claim off and stick to factual information instead. We're happy to review your claims and talk through what evidence you'd need.

Language requirements

Mandatory label information must appear in the official language of whichever market you're selling into — English for the UK, German for Germany, and so on. Selling across multiple markets? You can either produce market-specific labels or a single multi-language label, as long as every language version says the same thing.

Selling online? A couple of extra rules apply

If you sell online, via a catalogue, or by mail order, all the mandatory label information needs to be available to the customer before they complete their purchase. You've got a few options for how to do this:
  1. A downloadable PDF of the label
  2. Clear images of the label on the product page
  3. Full details shown at checkout
Whichever route you choose, make sure allergen information is especially easy to spot.

Your action plan

Step 1: Gather your documentation
  1. List all ingredients along with their supplier names
  2. Identify every allergen present in your product
  3. Get nutrition testing results, or confirm your database values
  4. Confirm country of origin and gather any supporting paperwork
Step 2: Check your label against the 12 essentials
  1. Go through the checklist above item by item. For each one, ask: Is it there? Is it correct? Is it clear? Is the font big enough?
Step 3: Verify language and markets
  1. Double-check every piece of text is in the right language for each market you're selling into.
Step 4: Get an expert review Before anything goes to print
  1. Have your label checked by our compliance team. Fixing an error after printing is far more expensive than catching it beforehand.

To Summarise

Compliance is structured work that, once done properly, tends to stay done. There are a lot of rules to keep track of, but most brands already meet 10 or 11 of the 12 requirements — it's usually just small fixes standing between you and full compliance. Sorting these now protects you from product seizure, trading bans, and lost revenue later. Think of it as an investment in market access, not just a box-ticking exercise.

Need more help?

Our compliance team can help with food labelling reviews, nutrition declarations, allergen assessments, and full regulatory checks — all under UK and EU law. We'll work with you to make sure your labels are fully compliant before you go to market.
Get in touch with us for a compliance check, or to talk through your specific product.